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BRUSSELS -- Just on the day EU leaders were hoping to present the final version of their plan to solve the region's debt crisis, their summit in Brussels was overwhelmed Thursday by debate over Portugal's political crisis and Ireland's banking woes.

MADRID -- Moody's downgraded the debt of 30 Spanish banks Thursday but left untouched the ratings of the country's three largest banks, highlighting the weaknesses in Spain's financial system a day after the government in neighboring Portugal fell.

LONDON -- Markets on Thursday brushed aside mounting speculation that Portugal would soon be tapping a European bailout fund amid hopes that the continent's debt crisis may be about to claim its final scalp - for now.

NEW YORK -- It might be inconceivable to small business owners that a disaster hundreds or thousands of miles away could shut them down. But the earthquake and tsunami in Japan have interrupted shipments of parts and finished goods to companies in the U.S., and sent many of them to call their...(image)

DUBLIN -- Ireland's economy shrank in 2010 for the third straight year and the yields on Irish bonds rose to euro-era highs Thursday amid fears that the cost of rescuing the country's failed banks will overwhelm its finances even with the international bailout.

CAIRO -- Egypt's benchmark stock index fell for the second consecutive day on Thursday, closing almost 4 percent lower but paring steeper losses earlier in the session as investors looked to unload holdings after the market's nearly two month closure.

RICHMOND, Va. -- A Texas businessman faces decades in prison after being convicted in a $100 million life insurance fraud scheme in which his company used investors' money to buy policies at less than face value then collected benefits when the insured people died.

BRUSSELS -- Europe's debt market jitters flared up again Wednesday as investors worried about the near-term fates of Portugal and Ireland, an ill omen on the eve of a summit where EU leaders plan to complete their crisis-fighting plan.(image)

WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a group of executives from smaller banks Wednesday that the financial overhaul will level the playing field for them with the industry's giants.(image)

JOHANNESBURG -- A South African mobile phone giant has joined with an insurance company to launch a program in Ghana that will allow subscribers to pay for life insurance through their mobile phones, a company official said Wednesday.

CAIRO -- Egypt's stock market plummeted almost 9 percent in its first day of trading Wednesday in nearly two months, with foreign investors leading a sell-off that offered a window into concerns about the country's stability after mass protests toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.

For years, officials in wealthy, liberal Montgomery County have avoided difficult decisions on scaling back pensions and health-care benefits for retirees. Now, the long-term shortfall is $4.8 billion.

Citing the separation of church and state, federal bankruptcy judge Russ Kendig said it would be unconstitutional for the court to cede control of the bankruptcy filing of alleged Ponzi schemer Monroe Beachy to the Amish community.(image)

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Americans who were afraid to open their 401(k) statements during the recession are finding good news inside the envelope now: For the most part, their accounts have come all the way back and then some.

Brokers, worried their livelihoods are in jeopardy from the health law, are pressing Congress and state legislatures to safeguard agent commissions and guarantee them a role in new online marketplaces where consumers will shop for coverage.

Casino billionaire Francis Lui's family-run company holds one of six licenses to operate casinos in the biggest casino market on Earth. Now it's planning its biggest development:a $1.9 billion, 2,200-room Galaxy Macau resort with five gaming areas, three hotels, 50 restaurants and a rooftop beach.

The nation's large banks have made major progress rebuilding capital levels that had been depleted during the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve said Friday, as it gave many of the firms the green light to pay dividends to their shareholders.(image)

Many taxpayers are preparing for their annual battle with IRS form 1040 by gathering up all their documents, statements, checks and other assorted papers. At the end of this process, taxpayers are often left with piles of neatly sorted, tabulated and cross-indexed piles. From a homeowner's perspe...

State attorneys general will accept nothing less than wholesale changes to the way the nation's largest mortgage servicers treat troubled homeowners, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who leads the coalition of 50 attorneys general, said in an interview

BRUSSELS -- Upcoming stress tests on banks will be harsher than last year's, the European Union's bank regulator said Friday, although important elements of the exercise deemed crucial to the region's crisis strategy remain undecided.

Major industrialized nations will combine in a rare coordinated currency intervention to keep the Japanese yen from rising too sharply in value in the wake of the country's recent natural disaster, a sign of the deep global concern about the health of the world's third largest economy.(image)

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has filed a $900 million civil suit against three former top executives of Washington Mutual Bank, alleging their negligence and risk-taking caused the bank's 2008 collapse.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Bahrain's stock exchange and a few bank branches reopened Thursday, but business remained far from normal a day after soldiers and riot police overran an anti-government protest camp in the Gulf island kingdom.

NEW YORK -- Fixed mortgage rates tumbled this week and the 15-year loan dipped below 4 percent for the first time in three months. Rates followed the yield on U.S. Treasury bonds, which fell on worries that the crisis in Japan could slow economic growth.

UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Afghans must overcome "major obstacles" to demonstrate their ability to control the country's future, including a dispute over the status of parliament and an impasse over the embattled Kabul Bank.

U.S. stocks dropped sharply into the red early Tuesday following a global sell-off on fears that what appeared to be a serious but contained nuclear accident in Japan is turning into a full-blown catastrophe.

TOKYO -- Japanese stocks rebounded Wednesday, recovering some of the massive losses sustained the last two days following a devastating earthquake and tsunami. Other Asian indexes also bounced back even as the economic toll from the disasters, including an escalating nuclear crisis, remained...

Yields on 10-year notes fell the most in almost three months as the Bank of Japan's efforts to provide liquidity and expand an asset-purchase program failed to stem an equity selloff, which sent the Nikkei 225 Stock Average down as much as 14 percent and sapped U.S. stocks. Two-year note yields...

LAS VEGAS -- The promise of palm tree groves and low-priced real estate lured Alan and Katherine Ackerly across the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Nevada in 2004, where thousands of new houses beckoned brightly as any neon sign.